Yuan Shao

Yuan Shao, scion of the Yuan clan; counsels He Jin to push the eunuchs to extinction and proposes summoning outside generals to force the issue.

Guards He Jin to the palace and, when the Regent Marshal's head comes over the wall, calls the slayers of the wicked to him and leads the storming of the palace. At Dong Zhuo's second banquet he alone answers the deposition speech - 'if your sword is sharp, mine is never blunt!' - and the chapter ends with the two facing each other, blades drawn.

Walks out of the banquet sword in hand, hangs his seals of office at the east gate, and rides for Jizhou. Pardoned and given the governorship of Bohai on Zhou Bi and Wu Qiong's advice, he sends the secret letter that shames Wang Yun into plotting - the spark for the sword scheme.

Elected chief lord and sworn on the three-story altar, smearing the sacrificial blood. He names his brother Yuan Shu commissary chief, sends Sun Jian as van leader, laments that Yan Liang and Wen Chou are absent while Hua Xiong kills champion after champion, and sneers at sending 'a mere archer' - then watches Guan Yu return before the wine cools.

Receives word of Sun Jian's secret seal and writes to Liu Biao asking him to intercept Sun Jian's column - the rupture that effectively dissolves the coalition.

Takes Jizhou by Peng Ji's two-handed trick - inviting Gongsun Zan's attack, then entering as Han Fu's 'protector' - and strips Han Fu of everything. His deniable ambush kills Gongsun Yue, igniting the Pan River war: he loses to Qu Yi's ambush, dashes his helmet down refusing to hide when Zhao Zilong hems him in, and finally flees the charge of the three brothers. He accepts the imperial truce with elaborate respect.

Yuan Shao; named in passing as the regional power on Cao Cao's northern flank - Xun Yu has just left him.

Yuan Shao; defeats Black Mountain bandits with Lu Bu's help in the chapter's setup of the Yanzhou raid.

Yuan Shao; named in passing as the lord watching the Changan disaster from Jizhou.

Named only as Dong Zhao's former employer in the secretary's self-introduction.

Yuan Shao; named in passing among the great regional powers.

Yuan Shao; named in passing in the regional roll.

His arrogant letter demanding grain and troops for a Gongsun Zan campaign nearly brings war - until Guo Jia's ten points persuade Cao Cao to flatter instead: the protectorship of four northern regions and a promise of help send Yuan Shao's army north, clearing the board for Xiapi.

Yuan Shao; named in passing as the great power to the north.

Finishes Gongsun Zan with intercepted signals, a tunnel, and fire, inheriting the whole north; then demands the Imperial Seal itself as the price of accepting his broken brother's imperial title.

Yuan Shao; finally moves south against Cao Cao with 700,000 troops; council split between Tian Feng's caution and Guo Tu / Shen Pei's push for war.

Yuan Shao; off-stage gathering at the Yellow River as the chapter unfolds at Xuchang.

Found disheveled and weeping - not for the realm but for his favorite youngest son's scabies - he waves away the chance to seize Xuchang and sends Sun Qian home with a promise of refuge instead. That promise he keeps royally: he meets the beaten Liu Bei ten miles outside Yejun.

Talked into the autumn campaign by Liu Bei's flattery over Tian Feng's protests - whom he jails - he sends Yan Liang against Baima over Ju Shou's objection. When the survivors describe the red-faced executioner, he turns on his guest: 'your brother has slain my beloved leader' - and orders Liu Bei beheaded.

Yuan Shao; threatens Liu Bei with death after Wen Chou's killing, then accepts Liu Bei's explanation and reverses again. The chapter portrays his vacillation.

Yuan Shao; off-stage at Jizhou.

Threatens to kill the approaching Guan Yu for Yan Liang and Wen Chou - then, at Liu Bei's deer-for-a-tiger arithmetic, laughs it off as a joke. Duped twice more, he releases Liu Bei to 'recruit Liu Biao' and Jian Yong to 'watch' him, and turns to Guo Tu's Sun Ce alliance when neither comes back.

His envoy Chen Zhen returns with the alliance dead and Cao Cao's titles draped over the new southern lord - and Yuan Shao, enraged, begins mustering seven hundred thousand troops against Xuchang: the road to Guandu.

Yuan Shao; rejects Tian Feng's counsel from prison, Ju Shou's counsel in the field, and Xu You's counsel at the camp - leading him to lose the war entirely. Flees north with only 800 horsemen after Wuchao burns; the chapter's portrait of strategic self-destruction.

Rallied at Liyang by Jiang Yiqu after the Guandu rout, he hears his own soldiers wail 'had he but listened to Tian Feng' - then has the vindicated prophet killed on Peng Ji's slander rather than face him. He masses two hundred thirty thousand troops of his three sons and nephew at Cangting, is shattered by the ten ambushes, coughs bright blood with his sons in his arms, and goes home to sicken while Lady Liu presses the succession he cannot decide.

Yuan Shao; dies of grief and illness this chapter, blood streaming from his mouth. The last great obstacle to Cao Cao's north is gone, but the succession war among his sons keeps Hebei contested for several more chapters.

Cao Cao sacrifices at his tomb, bows, laments, and retells their young men's conversation about holding the north - 'these words seem as if spoken only yesterday, and now he is gone' - then remits the region's taxes and provides for his widow.

Yuan Shao; named in passing - long dead.

Yuan Shao; named in passing - long dead.

Yuan Shao; cited in the debate as a comparison case.

Yuan Shao; named in passing.

Yuan Shao; named in passing in the chapter's recap.

Yuan Shao; named in passing.

Yuan Shao; named in passing - Cao Cao thinks of how the north was harder to win than this loss is to bear.

Yuan Shao; named in passing.

Yuan Shao; named in passing.

Yuan Shao; named in passing - appears in Cao Cao's ghost visions.

Yuan Shao; named in passing in historical recap.

Yuan Shao; named in passing in the oration.